William Dodd (clergyman)

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William Dodd 1769, painted by John Russell
Sermon to the repentant girls in the chapel of London's Magdalen Hospital on Blackfriars Road, 1809
William Dodd before the execution in Tyburn

William Dodd (born May 29, 1729 in Bourne ( Lincolnshire ), † June 27, 1777 in Tyburn , London ) was an English clergyman and man of letters who was executed for forging a promissory note .

Life

Willam Dodd was born in Bourne, Lincolnshire , in 1729 to a vicar . From 1745 to 1750 he studied as Sizar in Clare College at the University of Cambridge . He passed his studies with the distinction of a Wrangler . After graduating, he settled in London . Already heavily in debt, he married Mary Perkins on April 15, 1751, the daughter of a penniless house servant, who, as the discarded mistress of John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, had a trousseau of £ 1,000. In 1751 he was ordained a deacon and in 1753 a priest of the Anglican Community . He first gained the position of assistant priest at West Ham Church . As a sought-after preacher, he achieved a rapid career. Dodd invested his wife's trousseau and a £ 1,000 lottery prize in the construction of the Charlotte Chapel in Pimlico . Dodd founded the Magdalen Hospital in 1757, a facility for rehabilitation of prostitutes, which he directed with great commitment from 1758. Dodd was an avowed opponent of the death penalty, which he opposed on legal, political and religious reasons. He founded an association to help poor debtors. In 1763 he received the title of Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty . Lord Chesterfield called Dodd in 1763 to tutor his nephew and successor Philip Stanhope, 5th Earl of Chesterfield . Dodd received his PhD from Cambridge University Law School in 1765 and an LL.D. (Legum Doctor).

Dodd, however, lived on a large scale. Private interests were broad and included luxurious clothing, art, an extensive library, women, horse racing, and fast wagons. Georg Forster said Dodd owned a Spider Phaeton with 4 HP, which was the absolute upper class of sports carriages around 1770. His fashionable extravagances earned him the nickname Macaroni Parson . Out of financial distress, Dodd attempted a bribe in 1774 to obtain the lucrative benefices of the Rector of St. George's, Hanover Square. The attempted bribe was made public. Dodd lost his honorary position as court preacher. Samuel Foote made Dodd in the comedy The Cozeners as Dr. Simony ridiculous. Thackeray used the figure of Dr. Simony in his novel Memoirs of Barry Lindon, Esq. Dodd left England in 1774 and only returned permanently to London in 1776 after stays in France and Geneva . Brother Dodd was accepted into St. Albans Lodge N ° 29 as Warden in 1775 . As Grand Chaplain to the First Grand Lodge of England, he preached the opening of Freemansons Hall in 1775 and planned to write a two-volume history of Freemasonry. From 1761 Dodd wrote columns under the pseudonym The Visitor for The Public Ledger by the journalist Hugh Kelly . According to Georg Forster, he is said to have published his own newspaper together with Kelly in 1776, which got the reputation of a Chronique Scandaleuse . An agreement with his creditors failed that year.

In 1777 he tried to get money with a forged promissory note for 4200 pounds in the name of his former student Philip Stanhope, now 5th Earl of Chesterfield. However, the promissory note was presented to Stanhope, who declared it a forgery and thus started the legal process against his local chaplain. Dodd was imprisoned in Newgate Prison and sentenced to death on the gallows at Old Bailey on February 19, 1777, in which case the jury appealed to the king's mercy. The verdict was carried out on June 27, 1777 despite a petition with 23,000 signatures as a result of a campaign initiated by Samuel Johnson in Tyburn. King George III refused pardon on the grounds that the position of a prominent preacher was not sufficient to recognize extenuating circumstances. Even Dodd's critics attested a sincere repentance and exemplary attitude in his final hours. The execution of Dodds caused a sensation and was criticized by Voltaire in 1777 in the Prix ​​de la Justice et d l'Humanité . Dodd's widow died impoverished on July 24, 1784 in Ilford .

The attempt at resuscitation

Legend has it that Dodd was cut off from the gallows by Freemasons and resuscitated. According to a newspaper report from 1794, he is said to have written a letter from France a month after his death and was seen in a pub in Dunkerque . Resuscitation attempts on hanged people in Tyburn have been reported several times, also by James Boswell . In Dodd's case, the large crowd prevented helpers from getting through. In 1774 William Dodd was a founding member of a society for the resuscitation of drowned persons , the Humane Society for the Recovery of Persons apperently drowned , in whose support he preached sermons until 1776. Indeed, a group of doctors tried to resuscitate William Dodd, led by John Hunter . The resuscitation measures in the undertaker's house in Tottenham Court Road, about 10 kilometers away, could only be started two hours after the execution. William Dodd was buried in Cowley Cemetery, London, as his brother Richard was serving as a priest in Cowley.

Dodd's literary work

William Dodd had poems and verses printed from 1747 while studying at Cambridge. He became known beyond England through his morally permissive novel The Sisters , which was translated into German (Leipzig, by Weidmann) in 1756 and into Dutch (Amsterdam, nn) ​​in 1757. His Shakespeare commentary from 1752 was also received on the continent. Dodd's comment gave Goethe access to Shakespeare's work in March 1766. Dodd translated the work of Callimachus of Cyrene . In 1772 a translation into German of his sermons for young men from 1771 appeared in Lemgo. Dodd is said to have written a total of over fifty works, mostly of moral and theological content. In 1767 Dodd gave a selection of his poems, the Poems by Dr. Dodd , self-published. He wrote his last poems the night before the execution.

The Christian's Magazine

William Dodd published The Christian's Magazine , the first Christian magazine in England, for John Newbery between 1760 and 1767 . The journal's authors were Elisabeth Scott, Joseph Grigg (1720–1768), Ottiwell Heginbotham (1744–1768), Merick and Smart.

Dodd's library

In mid-March 1777, three weeks after the trial, Dodd's household was dissolved. The auction took place at Dodd's house on Argyle Street. The library catalog comprised 318 lots. In addition to theological, historical and philosophical writings, Dodd mainly owned translations of classical authors. A single copy of the auction catalog has been preserved in the Yale University library . Two ex libris are known from Dodd. Under the motto Wise and Harmless , a snake winds around a bundle of ears of corn. Until 1763 the first was named W. Dodd MA. From 1763 the title Chaplain to the King was added. Noteworthy are the mahogany bookcases listed in the catalog with Gothic elements on the doors, which, according to the Gothic Taste style, speaks for the work of Thomas Chippendale .

Tribute to William Dodds

Despite his deep private aberrations and entanglements, the Reverend Dr. William Dodd, one of the great social reformers of the 18th century, whose work earned even respect from Voltaire. The objectives of the companies he initiated or co-founded are still relevant today and point to the future. This includes his commitment to single mothers and prostitutes in St. Magdalens Hospital, the Society for Debt Relief and Rehabilitation of Debtors in Need and marginalized Debtors, the Society for Resuscitation of Drowned People and his stand against the death penalty, topics in which he rubbed himself up. With his sermons in the French style, Dodd founded a church leadership based on the idea of ​​charismatics. In literary terms, he and Isaac Reed shaped the European reception of Shakespeare in the 18th century.

Works (selection)

  • The beauties of Shakespear: regularly selected from each play. With a general index, digesting them under proper heads. Illustrated with explanatory notes, and similar passages from ancient and modern authors. By William Dodd… In two volumes , T. Waller, London, 1752.
  • The sisters; or, The history of Lucy and Caroline Sanson, entrusted to a false friend , T. Waller, London, 1754. German edition: Weidmann, Leipzig 1756 [1]
  • A sermon preach'd in the parish-church of St. Andrew: Holborn, On Friday April 26, 1754. before the president and governors of the City of London Lying-in Hospital for Married Women, at Shaftesbury-House in Aldersgate-Street . By William Dodd, BA Lecturer of West Ham in Essex, And of St. Olave's Hart-Street. Published at the Request of the Society , Charles Say, London, 1754.
  • The african prince: when in England, to Zara, at his father's court; and Zara's answer. An elegy on the death of His Royal Highness Frederick Prince of Wales. And Diggon Davy's resolution on the death of his last cow: a pastoral. By William Dodd, BA Late of Clare-Hall, Cambridge , T. Waller, London, 1755.
  • The Hymns of Callimachus translated from the Greek into English verse, with notes. To which are added, select epigrams, and the Coma Berenices of the same author, six hymns of Orpheus, and the Encomium of Ptolemy by Theocritus. By William Dodd. , London, 1755
  • The sinful Christian condemn'd by his own prayers. : a sermon , London 1755.
  • The nature and necessity of fasting: being the substance of two sermons preach'd in the parish churches of West Ham, Essex, and St. Olave's, Bar-street, London: to which are added, two solemn acts of private devotion, from the pious Bishop Ken's practice of divine love , W. Faden, London, 1757.
  • The frequency of capital punishments inconsistent with justice, sound policy, and religion. : Being the substance of a sermon , W. Faden, London, 1762.
  • Poems by Dr. Dodd , Dryden Leach for the author, London, 1767.
  • An abridgement of the new version of the psalms,: for the use of Charlotte-Street and Bedford Chapels , W. Faden, London 1770
  • William Dodd et al .: The Holy Bible, with a commentary; in which are inserted the notes and collections of John Locke, esq., Daniel Waterland, DD, the right honorable Edward Earl of Clarendon, and other learned persons. With practical improvements , Davis, London, 1770-1773.
  • An account of the rise, progress, and present state of the Magdalen Hospital: for the reception of penitent prostitutes. Together with Dr. Dodd's sermons, preached before the president, vice-presidents, governors, & c. Before his Royal Highness the Duke of York, & c. and in the Magdalen Chapel , W. Faden, London 1770
  • A commentary on the books of the Old and New Testament. In which are Inserted the Notes and Collections of John Locke, Esq; Daniel Waterland, DD The Right Honorable Edward Earl of Clarendon. And Other Learned Persons. With practical improvements. By William Dodd, LLD Prebendary of Brecon, and Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty. In three volumes , Davis, London, 1770.
  • Thoughts in prison: in five parts. Viz. The imprisonment. The trial. The retrospect. Futurity. Public punishment. By the Rev. William Dodd, LLD To which are added, his last prayer, written in the night before his death: and other miscellaneous pieces , Edward and Charles Dilly, in the Poultry, London, 1777.
  • Thoughts on the glorious Epiphany, of the Lord Jesus Christ. : a poetical essay, written at Southampton in the year MDCCLVII. Sacred to friendship. By William Dodd, AM Lecturer of West Ham, Essex, and St. Olave's, Hart-Street, London , G. Kearsly, London, 1777.

Web links

Commons : William Dodd  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

literature

  • The unhappy predicant of London: vividly portrayed in tombstone thoughts , anonymous, London ?, 1777. [2]
  • Isaac Reed : An Account of the Life and Writings of William Dodd , M. Hingeston and J. Williams, London 1777. [3]
  • Johann Georg Adam Forster : Life of Wilhelm Dodds: former royal court preacher in Londen , Haude and Spener, Berlin, 1779. [4]
  • Percy Fitzgerald: A famous forgery, being the story of "the unfortunate" Doctor Dodd , Chapman and Hall, London, 1865.
  • James H. Warner: The Macaroni Parson , Queen's Quarterly, LIII, Queens University, 1946, pp. 41ff.
  • Robert Frederic Metzdorf: Isaac Reed and the infortunate Dr. Dodd , Harvard Library Bulletin, VI, 1952, pp. 393-396.
  • Arthur Henry Rolph Fairchild: A Shakesperian who was hanged , The Western Humanities Review, VII, 1953, p. 313ff.
  • Robert Raymond Groß: Doctor Dodd , Bucknell University Studies, Bucknell, IV, 1953, p. 69ff.
  • Edwin Elliot Willoughby: The unfortunate Dr. Dodd: The tragedy of an incurable optimist . In: Essays by Divers Hands (Royal Society of Literature), London / New York, 1958, pp. 124-143.
  • Gerald Howson The Macaroni Parson: A Life of the Unfortunate Dr. Dodd. , Hutchinson, London, 1973. ISBN 0-09-115170-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Georg Forster: Life of Dr. Wilhelm Dodds, former royal. Court preacher in London, Berlin, 1779, p. 17.
  2. ↑ Georg Forster: Life of Dr. Wilhelm Dodds, former royal. Court preacher in London, Berlin, 1779, p. 69.
  3. ↑ See: Helmut C. Jacobs: Against torture and the death penalty. Enlightenment Discourse and European Literature from the 18th Century to the Present. Peter Lang, 2007, p. 39ff.
  4. ^ Barb Karg, John K. Young: A Reverend Forger. In: 101 Things You Didn't Know About The Freemasons: Rites, Rituals, and the Ripper-All You Need to Know About This Secret Society !, Adams Media, 2007, pp. 140f.
  5. ↑ Catherine Packham: Eighteenth-Century Vitalism: Bodies, Culture, Politics, Palgrave Macmillan; 2012, p. 111ff.
  6. ↑ Roger Lüdeke, Virginia Richter: Theater on the move: The European theater of the early modern times, Walter de Gruyter, 007, s. 201.
  7. ^ Charles Welsh: Bookseller of the Last Century: Being Some Account of the Life of John Newbery, and of the Books He Published, with a Notice of the Later Newberys, Cambridge University Press, p. 201.
  8. ^ Auction catalog, books of Laurence Sterne, 25 August 1768, pp. 358ff.
personal data
SURNAME Dodd, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dr. Simony
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English clergyman, writer and forger
DATE OF BIRTH May 29, 1729
PLACE OF BIRTH Bourne (Lincolnshire)
DATE OF DEATH June 27, 1777
Place of death Tyburn , London